Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. Washington
Black Leadership in the Age of Jim Crow
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Book, 2009/06/01
Current format, Book, 2009/06/01, , No Longer Available.Book, 2009/06/01
Current format, Book, 2009/06/01, , No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formatsFrom the time of his famous Atlanta address in 1895 until his death in 1915, Booker T. Washington was the preeminent African-American educator and race leader. But to historians and biographers of the last hundred years, Washington has often been described as an enigma, a man who rose to prominence because he offered a compromise with the white South: he was willing to trade civil rights for economic and educational advancement. Thus one historian called Washington's time the "nadir of Negro life in America." Raymond W. Smock's interpretive biography explores Washington's rise from slavery to a position of power and influence that no black leader had ever before achieved in American history. He took his own personal quest for freedom and acceptance within a harsh, racist climate and turned it into a strategy that he believed would work for millions. Was he, as later critics would charge, an Uncle Tom and a lackey of powerful white politicians and industrialists? Sifting the evidence, Mr. Smock sees Washington as a field general in a war of racial survival, his compromise a practical attempt to solve an immense problem. He lived and worked in the midst of an undeclared race war, and his plan was to find a way to survive and to flourish despite the odds against him.
Smock, co-editor of the 14-volume Booker T. Washington Papers and former Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, has crafted this biography of Booker T. Washington to refute historians who consider the man to be an enigma who compromised with white Southerners. Written for history buffs and scholars of African American studies, this book charts Washington's rise to prominence as a black leader of unprecedented importance and details his associations with politicians, civil rights activists and wealthy philanthropists. Two dozen rare photographs and illustrations are also included. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Interprets the life of Booker T. Washington, exploring his rise from slavery to become an influential educator and African American leader.
From the time of his famous Atlanta address in 1895 until his death in 1915, Booker T. Washington was the preeminent African-American educator and race leader. But to historians and biographers of the last hundred years, Washington has often been described as an enigma, a man who rose to prominence because he offered a compromise with the white South: he was willing to trade civil rights for economic and educational advancement. Thus one historian called Washington's time the "nadir of Negro life in America." Raymond W. Smock's interpretive biography explores Washington's rise from slavery to a position of power and influence that no black leader had ever before achieved in American history. He took his own personal quest for freedom and acceptance within a harsh, racist climate and turned it into a strategy that he believed would work for millions. Was he, as later critics would charge, an Uncle Tom and a lackey of powerful white politicians and industrialists? Sifting the evidence, Mr. Smock sees Washington as a field general in a war of racial survival, his compromise a practical attempt to solve an immense problem. He lived and worked in the midst of an undeclared race war, and his plan was to find a way to survive and to flourish despite the odds against him.
Smock, co-editor of the 14-volume Booker T. Washington Papers and former Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, has crafted this biography of Booker T. Washington to refute historians who consider the man to be an enigma who compromised with white Southerners. Written for history buffs and scholars of African American studies, this book charts Washington's rise to prominence as a black leader of unprecedented importance and details his associations with politicians, civil rights activists and wealthy philanthropists. Two dozen rare photographs and illustrations are also included. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Interprets the life of Booker T. Washington, exploring his rise from slavery to become an influential educator and African American leader.
From the time of his famous Atlanta address in 1895 until his death in 1915, Booker T. Washington was the preeminent African-American educator and race leader. But to historians and biographers of the last hundred years, Washington has often been described as an enigma, a man who rose to prominence because he offered a compromise with the white South: he was willing to trade civil rights for economic and educational advancement. Thus one historian called Washington's time the "nadir of Negro life in America." Raymond W. Smock's interpretive biography explores Washington's rise from slavery to a position of power and influence that no black leader had ever before achieved in American history. He took his own personal quest for freedom and acceptance within a harsh, racist climate and turned it into a strategy that he believed would work for millions. Was he, as later critics would charge, an Uncle Tom and a lackey of powerful white politicians and industrialists? Sifting the evidence, Mr. Smock sees Washington as a field general in a war of racial survival, his compromise a practical attempt to solve an immense problem. He lived and worked in the midst of an undeclared race war, and his plan was to find a way to survive and to flourish despite the odds against him.
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- Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 2009/06/01
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